1st Division commander General Joseph Masnou of the French Corps Expéditionnaire d’Orient inspects advanced trenches at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Ottoman Turkey, early summer 1915. General Masnou was wounded on 12 July and died of his wounds on the 17th.

No doubt a true veteran of the tremendous battles of 1915…

Doddington Hall, the buff coat & armour of John Hussey, aged just 21, they bear the mark of the shot that killed him, fired at the Battle of Gainsborough on 28 July 1643. The musket ball pierced both leather & breastplate, with no exit wound. Full story: country-life-magazine.visitl… Country Life

As a child in Birkenhead I met many men who had built the Ark at Camell Laird's yard. They were exceptionally proud of the carrier. Many in our street remembered seeing the giant take shape at the end of the street. What a great picture.

Princess Mary’s Christmas gift for ‘Every Sailor Afloat, Every Soldier at the Front’ to a sailor of HMS Queen Mary, sunk with almost all hands at Jutland, 110 years ago. This frame could either be a poignant memory of a lost sailor, or survivor’s memory of his once proud vessel.

Terrain and Gallipoli, 1915-2025. Part two. open.substack.com/pub/arielh…

I enjoyed listening to these this morning. No matter how often I’ve revisited the campaign (my father would discuss it with me as a child), I shake my head at the losses. Well worth reading: two pieces @ProfPeterDoyle wrote about Gallipoli last year on his Substack. Terrain and Gallipoli, 1915-2025. Part one. open.substack.com/pub/arielh…

Had a very enjoyable chat with Paul about the Italian Front, and my foolish obsession with walking the ground, even when that ground is fairly hazardous at times. Have a listen…

Ooh

A newly installed board at Ferme de Navarin It includes a first on the western front! a photograph of an unnamed soldier from the 315e RI. But after digging through records, casualty lists and photos, we can narrow down who this man most likely was... Thread below 🧵

Following the expansion of the golf course of Golf- en Countryclub De Palingbeek, archeological research is now first carried out. After that, the golf course expands with nine holes. But that golf course is expanding on grounds with a story. Many remains of soldiers, both German, British and French soldiers, have been found on the site, all in an early French trench that was later abandoned. "We suspect that a large part of the 1914 battlefield has been cleared and dumped in that trench. We keep finding bodies, it looks like a mass grave. focus-wtv.be/nieuws/intacte-…

Interesting evening at the @cadoganhall

Shall we go and have a look? Butte de Vauquois mid 1915– early 1918, French and German troops fought a deadly underground war here, detonating around 500 mines beneath each other’s positions. Entire hill disappeared Below 🧵is what is left

Shoulder arms! Hollow cast Johillco toy soldiers showing the evolution in British infantry dress and equipment, early WW2: Service Dress to Battle Dress; 1908 To 1938 infantry equipment.

A memory my grandmother told me about – she was 11 in 1914: seeing her two brothers return from the front and take a hot bath in a tub, with lice floating on the surface of the water.

In Paris : reflecting on this card I picked up yesterday, a wry statement on trench hygiene for the average Front Line soldier of the Great War. Le Poilu has provided his family with love and lice… sent home by French Territorial soldier Charles Marse in 1916.

In Paris : reflecting on these cards from one family I picked up yesterday. This one, sent to a French Territorial Soldier Charles Marse, honours on its face the defenders of France - while describing gathering food essentials from an Italian: ‘macaroni, nouilles, haricots…’

In Paris : reflecting on these cards I picked up yesterday. I understand that they were sold (along with small medallions) in aid of the men in the trenches, of the Poilu with no family or with a family in need, on the designated Soldiers’ Day, 25-26 December 1915.

1/ 🧵 The Festival of Britain opened this day in 1951 - according to its official guide a 'united act of national reassessment, and [a] corporate reaffirmation of faith in the nation’s future’.

Loud Australian at @BFI screening of Peter Weir’s Gallipoli this evening: Why are YOU here? Are you Australian? Me: I’m an historian who studies Gallipoli… I’m not Australian Her: have YOU been to Gallipoli? Me: Many times…you should see the Dawn Ceremony at Anzac… Her: oh….